1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis system. More particularly, the invention is concerned with an ultrasonic diagnosis system which incorporates a function for correcting and/or controlling ultrasonic transmission power on the basis of a signal sent from a probe.
2. Description of Related Art
For better understanding of the present invention, description will first be made in some detail of an ultrasonic diagnosis system known heretofore by reference to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings which shows in a block diagram a general arrangement of an hitherto known ultrasonic diagnosis system such as an ultrasonic tomography system.
Referring to the figure, the prior art ultrasonic diagnosis system includes a probe 1 which is composed of an array constituted by a large number of vibrational elements or transducers and realized in a multi-channel structure for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave to and from an object undergoing the diagnosis (hereinafter referred to as the object under test) and a diagnosis processing apparatus 100 which is designed to process the ultrasonic echo signal supplied from the probe to thereby generate an image such as a tomogram for display.
In the ultrasonic diagnosis system of the type mentioned above, an ultrasonic transmission power control is usually adopted for the purpose of protecting the object under test against exposure to excessively large ultrasonic transmission power from the standpoint of safety. To this end, the diagnosis processing apparatus 100 incorporates therein a memory or storage 8 in which voltage values (hereinafter also referred to as the voltage data) for a transmission-dedicated high-voltage power supply D are stored in correspondence to the types of the probes, wherein a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 6 reads out the voltage data from the memory 8 in dependence on a probe type identifying signal A which indicates or identifies the probe 1 as employed to thereby generate a signal E for changing over the voltage of the transmission-dedicated high-voltage power supply D.
To this end, there is provided a power supply driver circuit 5 which references the transmission-dedicated high-voltage power supply control signal E to thereby change correspondingly the voltage of a transmission-dedicated high-voltage power supply D. As a result of this, amplitude of the ultrasonic transmission signal applied to the probe 1 from a transmission circuit 21 is changed correspondingly. In this manner, the ultrasonic transmission power is so controlled that the basic ultrasonic power emitted from the probe 1 is prevented from exceeding a predetermined level which is prerequisite for ensuring safety or security of the object under test.